Bishop: None of your business

FILE - This Jan. 2, 2011 file photo shows New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, left, with his girlfriend, Sandra Lee, and Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy, center, in front of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, in Albany, N.Y., after attending Sunday services. The father, the son and the question of whether to grant communion to Catholics who openly flout canon law has once again reared up in New York where a Vatican consultant is calling to deny the host to Gov. Cuomo while he is living with his girlfriend. More than 25 years ago, Cuomo's father, Gov. Mario Cuomo, ran afoul of the church for his support of abortion rights. (AP Photo/Stewart Cairns, File)Stewart Cairns

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Edward Peters, a Catholic canon law expert.

Hubbard was responding to opinions expressed by Catholic canon law expert Edward Peters, who last month on his blog stated that the couple was engaging in what church law defines as "public concubinage" by sharing Lee's Westchester County home.

Peters wrote last month about Hubbard's warm welcome to the couple at Mass at Albany's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on Jan. 2, the day after Cuomo's inauguration. He claimed that Hubbard had committed a "dereliction of pastoral duty."

Without referring to Peters, Hubbard responded Wednesday by telling any critics to, in effect, mind their own business.

"There are norms of the church governing the sacraments, which Catholics are expected to observe," Hubbard wrote in a brief statement. "However, it is unfair and imprudent to make a pastoral judgment about a particular situation without knowing all the facts.

"As a matter of pastoral practice we would not comment publicly on anything which should be addressed privately, regardless if the person is a public figure or a private citizen," Hubbard wrote in conclusion.

Dwyer, who lives outside of Tannersville in the Catskills, said modern religious thought has come to the conclusion that communion should be denied only to those living in mortal sin -- a state that requires "a serious, grievous matter," sufficient reflection by the sinner, and the "full consent" of his will.

"Cuomo comes from a day and age when living with your girlfriend isn't a serious, grievous matter ... or something that's seen as a serious violation of God's will," Dwyer said.

Peters, who teaches at Detroit's Sacred Heart Major Seminary, serves as a consultant to the highest Vatican court, the Apostolic Signatura. His opinions were picked up by a conservative news service and reported around the state on Wednesday.

The back and forth over Cuomo's good standing as a Catholic is the latest in a long series of conflicts between church and state. Numerous Catholic politicians who support abortion rights -- including Vice President Joe Biden and the late U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy -- have been criticized for receiving communion despite their advocacy for a practice viewed as anathema by the Vatican. Indeed, Peters' initial blog post on Cuomo's appearance at Hubbard's Mass noted the governor's pro-choice stance as an additional affront to church law.

After an appearance Wednesday morning on Long Island, Cuomo commented on the matter in a style similar to Hubbard's.

"My religion is a private matter," he told reporters, "and it's not something I discuss in the political arena."